Today, on 4 September, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament voted on its position on the initiative report of the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) regarding the protection of whistleblowers. The rapporteur of our committee was my green colleague from the U.K., Molly Scott Cato.
MEP Sven Giegold, financial and economic policy spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group, comments on the success of the votes:
„This is a step forward for the protection of whistleblowers in Europe. The members of ECON accepted with an overwhelmingly majority the call for an EU law for the protection of whistleblowers. This law is long overdue, considering that many of the tax and financial scandals would not have been revealed without whistleblowers. We are very pleased that there was a majority for the creation of an EU fund to protect whistleblowers, as many of them face drastic consequences once they go public.
It is however, a shame that most Christian Democrats abstained on the final vote, because they want to protect whistleblowers only, if they first report to their superiors before they inform the public and because they do not support the EU fund.”